Masked raiders bulldoze Chinese border outpost and dump stuff in Gobi Desert

More than 100 masked raiders ransacked a border security outpost in Inner Mongolia yesterday, injuring 13 workers before returning to demolish the checkpoint with bulldozers, mainland media reported.

The raiders cut the power supply and smashed surveillance equipment before pepper-spraying the workers, putting bags over their heads and threatening to beat them to death if they didn’t comply, according to Chen Tiejun, the deputy magistrate of Ejin Banner, a county bordering Gansu province.

Chen told the China News Service the raiders had broken into the border station in Malianjing at around 3.30am and taken the workers outside.

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“It was as cold as minus 20 degrees Celsius, and the workers, with their hands tied, were left in the Gobi Desert,” Chen said.

The raiders then returned to the checkpoint office, where they stole everything from cash to mobile phones and clothes before using two bulldozers to demolish the checkpoint and its related facilitates, including dormitory rooms and 11 vehicles.

The outpost was set up to keep stability on the border between Inner Mongolia and Gansu and to prevent illegal land reclamation, according to the Alxa government, which oversees Ejin Banner. It covered an area of 4,600 square metres, plus an 800-square metre living area.

This was not the first such attack. In September, more than 40 masked men with sticks – allegedly led by a deputy town chief from bordering Jinhang county – besieged the outpost for an hour before workers persuaded them to leave, local media said.